Google Realtime Search

"Realtime Search lets you see up-to-the-second social updates, news articles and blog posts about hot topics around the world."
Soon you will be able to access Google Realtime Search (with new features) at its own address, www.google.com/realtime. 
To try it out now go to http://www.google.com/realtime?esrch=RealtimeLaunch::Experiment.
I did a search for Butler Community College and got 3 Facebook and 2 Twitter entries none of which was more than 4 hours old.People are talking about the game last night - Congrats Grizzlies! - and the new stadium.

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Top 50 Websites of 2010

Here is a list of CNN/Time Magazine's Top 50 Websites of 2010. How many have you heard of or used? Check them out. You might find something quite valuable for you or your students.

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Replacing a Pile of Textbooks With an iPad

The article, Replacing a Pile of Textbooks With an iPad, provides an interesting look into the possibilities in using e-books for more than just "reading" the text book. E-books offer the possibility of true interaction within the text among students and instructors.

Thanks to Eddie Andreo for the tip.

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Connexions

Connexions is a place to view and share educational material made of small knowledge chunks called modules that can be organized as courses, books, reports, etc. Anyone may view or contribute:

• authors create and collaborate
• instructors rapidly build and share custom collections
• learners find and explore content

Connexions is an environment for collaboratively developing, freely sharing, and rapidly publishing scholarly content on the Web. Our Content Commons contains educational materials for everyone — from children to college students to professionals — organized in small modules that are easily connected into larger collections or courses. All content is free to use and reuse under the Creative Commons "attribution" license.

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VoiceThread

VoiceThread is another great product we saw demonstrated at C2C SIDLIT (Colleague to Colleague Summer Institute of Distance Learning and Instructional Technology).

Thanks to Mark Jarvis, we have purchased a 10 pack of this software. Each pack can be used for up to 25 students. Watch this video to see VoiceThread in action: http://voicethread.com/#q.b908650.i4836718

If you want to add some creative alternatives to written discussion in your online class, give VoiceThread a try. Your students will thank you!

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Skype in Education

The members of Butler's Instructional Tech department attended SIDLIT last Thursday and Friday. This is one reason we did not get a chance to post an entry. But we learned a lot! One presenter demonstrated how to use Skype in higher Ed. It was super. I found the following post that will help you understand a few of the possibilities.

Ten Ways to Use Skype in the classroom is geared toward K-12 education but has lots of ideas and Skype resources that you might find useful.

This Skype Techtorial will answer questions you didn't even know you had about using Skype! You can view it as a video or text.

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